Auto dimming

[verbato]

I bought Sony Bravia KDL-32EX302 -television couple of months ago.

It has one very disturbing property called auto dimming. In dark scenes (happens often on black & white -movies) it makes the brighter parts of the screen darker.

The manual says:
"• Adv. Contrast Enhancer: Automatically adjusts “Backlight” and “Contrast” to the most suitable settings judging from the brightness of the screen. This setting is especially effective for dark images scenes, and will increase the contrast distinction of the darker picture scenes."

Sounds good but the television does totally opposite.

I have turned ACE off, no help.

I have done many Google searches (keywords sony bravia auto dimming) and found out that for some models Sony has released a fix (firmware update) to correct this problem, but not for all models. I have also found out, that for some models the auto dimming can be disabled with a suitable combination of settings.

I also upgraded the firmware to M8.728, no help.

Has anyone found a way to disable auto dimming on this model?

[Bravia55HX]

Hi,

not sure if this is what you want but under Eco settings you will probably have a feature called light sensor, if so turn that off.

[verbato]

Thank you for your suggestion.

I turned the light sensor off, it had no effect to auto dimming.

Just to be curious, what is the light sensor supposed to do?

[Bravia55HX]

if the ambient light in the room is bright it turns brightness up and if its dim it turns it down, quite irritating to be honest.

[verbato]

I checked the manual, I think I found the light sensor in the front panel.

Have I understood correctly: if I something in front of light sensor, then the television should think that the room is dark and then turn the picture darker?

I must test that.

But I don't understand what the light sensor has to do with auto dimming, which happens when the scene is dark.

[blobbel]

hello everybody,

from what I've read and heard about this problem, I think there is no
way to disable this ominous auto dimming 'feature'.

I have a quite new KDL-32BX300 and I've experienced this problem for quite a while now.

As far as I know this problem is only occurring in 4:3 display mode
and only in dark scenes.For me it seems that most people aren't aware of the problem because they use their tv only in 16:9 mode which is flawless.

For example you are watching a  show of X-Files on DVD, which is  4:3 format, and a dark scene is displayed (which is by the way quite often the case). After a few few seconds the brightness level is dimming down automatically. When the scene gets eventually brighter again, the brightness level goes up to normal again according to that.

When the brightness is dimmed down you can hardly see anything at all on the screen. It's very annoying and watching a film with many dark scenes is impossible.

Sad to say from Sony Support I was getting no help at all. For me it seems, that Sony is not interested in discussing this point. Beyond that it seems that they are not willing to solve the problem, which they could I believe with a firmware update. They even refuse to acknowledge a technical failure and call it an intended feature, which is pure nonsense.

Because I am convinced this is a serious technical issue (faulty software programming issue which is maybe inherent to many if not all sony tvs) I am considering legal action by returning in to sony and getting money back because of technical insufficiancy (stepdown from contract).

[verbato]

Thank you very much for your answer blobbel, it helped me very much. Now I know that only solution is to wait is Sony someday would make a firmware update that corrects the problem.

You are right with the 4:3 display mode. I tested with one movie I watched yesterday, which dimmed very badly. I changed display mode to wide (16:9) and watched the same scene, no dimming. Then back to 4:3, watched to same scene and the dimming was back. I tested it with couple of other movies too, same happened. No dimming in wide mode. Very odd.

Of course the wide mode is not a solution to me, I don't like people look like sumo wrestlers when they are not sumo wrestlers.

It looks like for some models Sony has released firmware update which corrects this "feature". In

http://esupport.sony.com/US/perl/model-home.pl?mdl=KDL52V5100&LOC=3#/downloadTab

it says in firmware description

"Addresses an issue where the picture brightness changes intensity on some scenes."

I hope you have luck with your legal action and get your money back.

[goiniro]

In my case a KDL-26EX302 the dimming happens on any display mode, 16:9 and 4:3. I am film and video proffesional and I CAN'T BELIEVE that SONY has not solved this issue already. A new TV bought in 2011 with this flaw: THIS IS A BIG JOKE. I am speechless.

SONY PLEASE UPDATE the FIRMWARE inmediatly. I have tried already with the last two updates and no solution to it yet.

Does anyone from SONY really follow this forums? or Is it just a tool for them to entertain us?

[TheVoice]

For what it's worth, I have a 40EX403 and it also has this dimming 'feature'. Sometimes it does work effectively, but other times it can make a dark image too dark to actually see detail, which is not ideal.

About a month after I got the TV last year one of the backlights failed (creating a dark patch across the screen), probably due to this dimming feature putting additional wear and tear on the backlight. Fortunately it was well within warranty so the panel was replaced free of charge. Really wouldn't surprise me if the same issue happens again in future though.

[Hugesonyfan79]

I'm in the USA so my television may be different. With that being said I went to settings, setup, HDMI settings, and then turned off Control for HDMI. That fixed my issue with a dimming screen while watching low light scenes. Hope this helps.